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No More Prayer

This might fall under the category of “slightly off”, but here are my thoughts on prayer lately. It started with my kids, actually. When I’d tuck them into bed, I’d ask the question, “Who wants to pray?” Maybe it was my imagination, but I’d routinely get looks back as if I was asking, “Who wants to crawl into the deep, dark hole in the ground–we’re not sure what’s in there, or how deep it is, but we’re fairly sure you can get out the other end.” It just seemed that they were unnaturally intimidated by the prospect of talking with their Creator.

And that’s the very deal. Now, call this symantics, but I am retraining my brain not to use the word “pray” or “prayer” anymore. I’m sure I can hear some who might read this saying, “Jerry has lost it. He’s finally gone into the deep end of the crazy pool.” But here’s what I noticed: when I ask my kids, “Who wants to talk with God?”, there’s a different look in their eyes and there’s been more of a willingness to do that very thing: Talk with God.

Now, it’s not that the words “pray” and “prayer” are outlawed with me; that’d be ridiculous. But I am more conscious of the reality behind those words. What we’re really doing is conversing with our Creator. And I want to live a life and bring my kids up to live a life where that flows naturally.